


it cannot wait, i’m sure

by apprepuff



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: 5up is called five the entire time because i couldn’t make myself use numerical characters, Alternate Universe - Among Us (Video Game) Setting, Blindfolds, Boys Kissing, Corpse Husband Never Sleeps Ever, Flower Crowns, Fluff fluff and more fluff, Gay Awakenings - Freeform, M/M, Motorcycle Rides - Freeform, alien planets, except it’s a snowmobile, this fic is a lot happier than my other much longer wip with these two in it so be prepared for that, what else do I tag this with, y’all don’t wanna know the filename for this fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:21:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28108476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apprepuff/pseuds/apprepuff
Summary: “Jesus, I keep trying to dance around it. I’m just gonna say it. I... I think I’ve got feelings for you.”Corpse is dragged along by Five for a midnight run into the middle of nowhere. And for what? Flowers, of course!
Relationships: 5up/Corpse Husband, Black/Pink (Among Us)
Comments: 52
Kudos: 162





	it cannot wait, i’m sure

**Author's Note:**

> HELLO YES I WORKED VERY HARD AND VERY FAST BECAUSE I WANTED TO BE THE FIRST IN THE TAG FOR THIS SHIP BECAUSE I WAS SHIPPING IT BEFORE _THE STREAM™_ EVEN HAPPENED  
> I WROTE THIS IN LIKE 4/5 DAYS  
> IT’S PAST 5 AM FOR ME RN  
> ANYWAY ENJOY THESE GAY FLOWER NERDS _YEET_

The room was pitch black.

That was fine by Corpse, of course. Black was his colour, and night was his time. His crewmates made many jokes about it, calling him nocturnal or a vampire. When they asked how his sleeping schedule came to be so abnormal, he shrugged it off and blamed it on his mental state. The darkness and quiet of the late hours seemed to be therapeutic for him.

Although the room was shrouded in darkness, it wasn’t silent. Soft lo-fi music played through the astronaut’s black and purple headphones, a high-quality pair with a logo in the shape of a skull and crossbones stamped onto each housing. The headphones were comfortable and fit just right, with amazing audio quality and the added bonus of drowning out most background noise, allowing him to clear his mind more effectively and actually relax for once.

The headphones didn’t mute absolutely everything, of course. Loud or nearby noises, such as knocking on a door or people talking, would still draw Corpse’s attention.

However, it was neither of those that alerted the man that something was off. Rather, it was the hallway light turning on.

The sudden light under his bedroom door startled him, and he paused his music, taking off his headphones to instead wear them around his neck. It was at least two o’clock in the morning, and each crewmate’s bedroom had its own bathroom. Why was anyone awake at this hour?

_«... Oh. Wait. I’m not really one to judge, am I?»_

The man chuckled at his accidental hypocrisy, but all humour was quickly drained from his mood when a shadow appeared under his door, and three solid knocks rang through the quiet room.

“Who’s there?”

“It’s Five.”

Five? What was _he_ doing up at this hour? If anything, he should’ve been near comatose right about now. Recently, the pink crewmate had been exhausted, going to bed earlier and earlier. Corpse wasn’t sure what it was that had him so drained lately, but it had been concerning most of the crew.

_«Well, while he’s here, may as well let him in.»_ “Gimme a second, I’ll be right there.”

The shadow swayed slightly under the door.

Deciding to keep his headphones around his neck, Corpse stuffed his phone into the pocket of his PJ pants and slowly got up, blacking out for a second once he was standing. The fact that that happened so often was probably worrisome, but it wouldn’t kill him... would it?

Crossing the room rather quickly, the black crewmate opened his bedroom door to look out into the corridor of the sleeping quarters. The lights on in the hallway nearly blinded him after spending several hours straight in the pitch darkness, and he screwed them shut almost instantly, hissing in pain.

“Sorry, I probably should have left those off.”

“Why’d you even turn ‘em on anyway, you can see fine in the dark...” Corpse rubbed his exposed eye, thankful once again for the eyepatch that was protecting the other one, and looked down to meet his friend’s gaze.

Five was still in his pink spacesuit, as he always was. Corpse never saw him without it, and apparently, neither did anyone else. The other eleven members of the crew, Corpse himself included, typically went about their daytime routines in their suits, too, but without their helmets, for comfort’s sake. Five, meanwhile, had never once been seen without his full suit on. Corpse, Rae, and Toast were all convinced that he even showered with the thing on.

Five’s outfit possessed two features, aside from the lovely colour of his spacesuit, that made him stand out from the rest of the crew. The first was a small, lumpy, rather cute snowman perched on top of his helmet — whether it was real or fake, Corpse wasn’t sure, as he had never touched it before and had never thought to ask. It never seemed to fall off, though, even when Five tilted his head or laid down, so that was noteworthy.

_«Heh, maybe he hot-glued it on or something.»_

The second notable feature was the long scarf in a lovely shade of red, accented with thin white stripes. It reached to about halfway down the pink crewmate’s shins, and Corpse was honestly impressed by the fact that he had never once seen Five (or anyone else, for that matter) trip on it.

Corpse smiled at him, happy to see him despite it being rather late for a visit. While he was aware that the other astronaut couldn’t see his mouth, Five had gotten rather good at reading his expressions, so he just hoped that he got the message.

“Anyway, that’s enough of me bitching. What’s up?”

“I need you for something.”

“Straight to the point, I see.”

That made his friend laugh, which made Corpse smile. Five had a cute laugh. The older man wondered how many times his friend had gotten that before.

Once he stopped giggling, the scarfed astronaut shrugged passively. “I mean, I can save it ‘til morning...”

“Nah, I’m already up and adjusted to the lights. What do you need me to do?”

Five toyed with his scarf, tugging on it lightly. “Get your suit on, I need you to come with me.”

“Night walk on an alien planet, brilliant idea, Einstein.”

Another laugh. “Corpse...”

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding. I’ll get the suit on.”

Seeing no need for privacy, as he wouldn’t be taking anything off, Corpse stepped aside to allow the pink crewmate into his room. He stepped in without a moment’s hesitation, nodding his thanks in lieu of words, and Corpse shut the door behind him, just to close away that abysmal light for a few moments longer.

While Corpse retrieved his jet-black spacesuit from the floor, Five made a beeline for his friend’s desk, running his hand gently over a piece of lined paper before picking it up, examining it curiously.

Messy writing filled the page almost completely, the black ink slightly smudged in some places, as if someone had been absentmindedly resting their hand on the paper before remembering that the ink wasn’t dry yet. Scribbled-out paragraphs, verses written in corners with little five-line stars surrounding them, and potential titles listed here and there.

“Writing another song?”

“Sure am. Don’t tell the others about it just yet,” Corpse added, his tone teasing. Remembering that he still had his headphones and phone on him, he gently tossed them both onto his bed.

“Say no more.”

Within a second, Corpse had his spacesuit on, taking a second to adjust to it. Thankfully, each of the suits made for the crew of Mission Polus had been tailored specifically to the person wearing them, so they were comfortable without being too snug.

Thanks to technological advancements in the past few years, they were also a lot more lightweight than spacesuits of the past, which made them fairly easy to run, jump, and climb in — a very useful detail, seeing how Planet Polus was both vast and open, and had steep mountains and rock ledges around every corner.

_«How the hell do they even make these so that they protect you from getting crushed like a soda can by the void of space, but so you can still run through the snow in them like a little kid...?»_

After a moment of thought, the black crewmate grabbed his signature purple rabbit mask off of his nightstand and put it on. While his black facemask and medical eyepatch did an adequate job of hiding his face, the rabbit mask made him feel a lot more comfortable.

Finally, Corpse swiped his helmet off of the floor, where it had been resigned to for maybe the past few hours. Carrying it under his arm, he walked over to his friend and looked over his shoulder at the paper he was holding.

“I like this one,” Five remarked, gently tapping a spot on the paper where a rather smooth verse was scribbled down. “Can practically hear it in my head.”

“Thanks. I’m proud of that one,” the taller crewmate mused. “Thought it up out of nowhere, loved it, decided I had to get it down before I forgot it. Haven’t recorded it yet, though.”

The scarfed astronaut looked back over his shoulder at his friend.

“I bet it’s gonna sound amazing.”

The sincerity in his voice helped Corpse relax just a little bit. While he couldn’t see Five’s face, as it was completely obscured by the tinted glass of his helmet, he could tell that he was smiling just by the warmth of his tone.

Setting the paper down back where he found it, the pink crewmate turned around to face the other man, putting his hands on his hips and giving him a once-over.

“Well, now that you’re ready, follow me, O Sleepless One. I’ve got everything I need in my backpack.”

Luckily for the crew of Mission Polus, the planet they were currently stationed on had an atmosphere almost identical to Earth’s. Granted, it was cold as all balls, and it snowed pretty much all day and night, but at least they didn’t need to constantly carry their O2 packs on their backs. They had brought extra canisters on the expedition just in case, of course, but given that the air of Planet Polus was breathable for them, they instead carried colour-coded industrial storage packs everywhere.

Corpse laughed at the nickname. “Sleepless One. There’s one I haven’t heard before. Makes me sound like an eldritch horror.”

“Well, you have the voice for it. Just add an echo filter and you can start a cult!”

They both got a laugh out of that.

They continued making their cult jokes as Five led Corpse out of the sleeping quarters and to the left, right next to the bridge of the left seismic stabilizer.

A red and black snowmobile was parked where there had previously been empty space. It seemed to be suited for two people. Weren’t those supposed to be in storage?

Five strolled up to the vehicle and sat in the front like it was the most normal thing in the world, swinging his legs over the side and resting his hands on the seat as he looked expectantly at his friend.

Corpse raised an eyebrow.

“So, not a night walk, but rather a night... snowmobile ride...?”

“Ding ding ding. Remember how I was gone pretty much all day yesterday? Well, I’ve been getting a little claustrophobic, so I decided to ditch for a bit and explore the countryside. There are some flowers growing nearby that I spotted while I was out there, but I didn’t have the right tools on hand to harvest them. I want to get a few cuttings of one so I can add them to our documents, and maybe grow a few of our own.”

The black crewmate gave him a skeptical look. Five laughed, leaning forward and resting his forearms on his knees.

“Oh, come on, don’t look at me like that. It’ll be fun! This planet really is beautiful. Haven’t you gone off exploring it before?”

“No, I don’t think so. I usually just stay at home base.” He wasn’t lying. As lovely as Polus was, with its desaturated yet colourful flora, the incredible night sky that was perfect for stargazing, and its beautiful mountainous, snowy landscape, Corpse remembered clearly the warning that the crew was given before they were sent off on this mission.

“ _If flora can flourish in Polus’s bitter cold, so can fauna. Beware of hostile extraterrestrial life. Lethal force, when used in self-defence, is, of course, permitted. Your lives are more important than that of whatever you may encounter. However, bring the carcasses of whatever you kill back to the laboratory if you can, for testing purposes._ ”

The real question was why Five thought it was a good idea in any sense to wander off anywhere on his own for an entire day without alerting anybody.

_«This man has a death wish, I swear to God...»_

“Hellooo? Corpse? Anybody home?”

The taller man snapped back to reality at the sound of Five’s voice.

“Huh?”

“I asked if you’re up for it. You know, the snowmobile thing.”

“Oh! Yeah, I’m down.” He rubbed the back of his neck. He hated zoning out while someone was talking... at least his friend didn’t sound annoyed. Five was generally pretty understanding of things like that, and had always had a surprising amount of patience, too. It was almost impressive, considering the amount of almost comedically frustrating tasks that he had to do every day.

Figuring that that was enough hesitation, the masked man finally put on the helmet that he almost forgot he was holding and hopped onto the back of the snowmobile, as Five turned to face the front. Instinctually, the passenger leaned forward, wrapping his arms around the driver’s chest.

“I really hope you’ve at least driven one of these before.”

“Nope!”

Instant panic.

“ _What do you mean you’ve never_ —?!”

“ _And away we go_!!”

Before Corpse could even finish his sentence, the vehicle lurched forward, and the black crewmate held onto the driver for dear life as they sped away from the base.

* * *

“Alright, that over there’s the spot!”

Slowing their vehicle to a stop near the treeline next to an open field, Five attempted to turn to the side to jump off of the snowmobile, only to be restricted by the vice grip that Corpse still had on his torso.

“Uhh... Corpse...?”

“... That was... way too fast.”

“... Oh.” He sounded guilty now. “Yeah, taking off like a shot like that probably wasn’t the most enjoyable experience for you, was it?” The pink astronaut chuckled a bit, but it was clearly forced in an attempt to lighten the mood.

“I got used to it, and the landscape is just as pretty as you said it would be... it was just a bit of a jumpstart, is all. It startled me.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t really think about that...”

“It’s okay. Just, uh... maybe warn me when we leave.” He chuckled, loosening his grip on the driver as to allow him to get off of the snowmobile and using his now-free hands to remove his helmet.

After hopping off, Five rubbed his chest gently, as if it hurt. “You’re, uh... a lot stronger than you think.”

“Yeah, I get that sometimes. Sorry if it hurts.”

“It’s fine, I just need a little while to breathe and then I’ll be all good.”

Five looked up at him again. Once again, the lack of a clear view of his face didn’t impact Corpse’s ability to read him. He was smiling, that much was obvious just from the way that he slightly tilted his head. Cute.

Wordlessly, the black crewmate passed his friend his helmet and turned around. The scarfed astronaut tucked the helmet into his backpack for him. Now he had one less thing to carry.

The taller man turned back around and gave the driver an odd look.

“Why’d you park us all the way over here, anyway?”

“So we can stretch our legs after being on the snowmobile for God knows how long.”

“Yeah, I get that, but... you parked it literally an entire field away from the thing we need to go to.”

After a moment of thought, Five shrugged. “Ah, whatever, the walk can’t be that long. Come on!”

Like a child, he took off running towards a tall bush in the distance. Out of a lack of better options, Corpse followed suit, speeding up in degrees until he was running by his friend’s side.

The arctic wind blew cold against his face, even his mask not protecting him fully, and the snow crunched in a rapid one-two pattern underneath his boots. Thank God those things were all-weather.

“See, this isn’t so bad!” The pink crewmate’s tone was musical. He was huffing just a little bit, but laughing at the same time. His scarf was blowing in the wind behind him.

Unable to form a proper response, Corpse just laughed, a sense of playful competitiveness rising in him as he sped up, forcing his friend to keep pace. Adrenaline blazed through his veins as he listened to his friend giggling next to him like he didn’t have a care in the world, the sound pattern of his footsteps wobbling several times as he nearly stumbled and fell on his face, but always coasting back to a steady one-two. Corpse felt dizzy, but in a good way. When was the last time he felt this kind of rush?

He was so wrapped up in the moment that he didn’t even notice his leg muscles burning from the strain of running that fast for that long without a break.

Corpse was the first one to reach the flower bush, and he slowed to a stop a few feet in front of it. Before he could even get a good look at it, his legs finally gave out and he collapsed on his side, laughing in a mixture of euphoria and pain as he rolled over onto his back.

Noticing his friend drop like a bag of rocks, Five screeched to a halt as well to check on him, but he had unfortunately overestimated his braking capabilities. With a yelp of surprise, the pink astronaut ended up toppling forward, landing face-first in the snow.

Corpse was fairly sure that his voice was going to give out with how hard he was laughing. He could hardly breathe. When was the last time he had felt so carefree?

Although he was muffled by the snow, Five could be heard laughing too. He pulled himself up from the ground onto his hands and knees, and dizzily crawled a few steps forward, only to collapse again with his head on Corpse’s stomach.

They stayed like that for a minute, trying to calm down and catch their breath.

Corpse was the first one to speak.

“Holy shit, dude,” he managed to say, still out of breath and still giggling.

“God, that was... that was the best I’ve felt in... in a long time,” Five agreed, gasping for breath in between pauses. He coughed a few times — Corpse found it amusing how he still attempted to cover the lower half of his face with the crook of his elbow, despite wearing a space helmet.

Slowly, they managed to calm down, and Five shifted to lay on his front, folding his arms on Corpse’s stomach and resting his head on his arms, looking up at his friend. Corpse cursed the fact that he couldn’t see his expression through his helmet — the smile he must have had on his face must have been _radiant_.

Without even thinking about it, the black crewmate outstretched his hand, gently stroking Five’s helmet, as if he were petting a cat.

The scarfed astronaut chuckled. “What are you doing?”

“Pet-pet-pet.”

Another giggling fit.

“We should... probably get the flowers,” Five managed to say between laughs.

“Yeah, probably. Those were what we came for, weren’t they?”

“Kinda, yeah.”

““Kinda”? The hell else did we come out here for?” Corpse tried to sound irritated, but he really couldn’t when he was this happy. He had thought that he had calmed himself down, but oh boy, was he wrong.

“Eh, forget about it,” Five intoned. “Sit up and help me get a few of these blossoms, will you?”

“Yeah, yeah, just gimme a sec.”

Seemingly worn out from all of the running and laughing, Five pulled himself up off of the ground, wobbling a bit once he was on his feet.

Corpse rolled over onto his left side, finally getting a decent look at this flower bush that Five was so interested in.

He could immediately tell why he was so interested in it.

They appeared to be funnel or trumpet flowers, ranging in colour from purple to blue to a warm purplish-red. The stamens were white, and almost seemed to move, like tiny tentacles, which was... more than a little unsettling, honestly, but it was kind of fascinating, too. There were tens of the flowers on each vine, and they were decently sized — Corpse estimated that the bigger ones were around the size of his palm.

The bush itself, mostly shielded from the snowfall by the taller trees around it, was also far from the scrawny little thing that the man had expected before they left the planetary base. It was huge, towering over the astronauts like some kind of ent, with leaves and vines abound. It almost seemed to breathe.

He finally pulled himself out of the snow and stepped forward, standing to Five’s right and looking up at the bush.

“ _Woah_.”

“Right??” Five sounded excited, and reasonably so.

Corpse gently reached forward to touch a blossom, then hesitated, and retracted his hand instead. He made quick work of resigning his gloves to the snowy ground, hissing when the arctic Polus air hit his bare skin. As soon as he was over it, which didn’t take long, he reached for the flower again and gently stroked its petals.

_«It’s soft...»_

The astronaut tilted the flower upwards to look at the inside. The stamens did indeed move, like tiny tendrils, which was making him slightly uncomfortable, but it was still a fascinating thing to observe.

_«Five said we could grow these back in the lab, didn’t he? I want one of these in my room.»_

Not letting go of the flower, Corpse turned to his friend to confirm what he had said earlier, and was slightly startled to find him already looking at him. Specifically, at the hand touching the flower. His head was tilted slightly to the side, his arms crossed and his scarf blowing in the breeze, only a gentle movement now that the wind had mostly died down.

The sight only lasted for a moment before Five noticed that he had been spotted and looked up. He played it off naturally, as he did for everything, but especially his occasional odd behaviours.

“You need something?”

“... You said that we could grow these back in the lab, right?”

“Well, after I study them a bit to see what conditions are best for them. If they’re thriving out here in this frozen hellhole, they’re probably not super high maintenance.”

The black crewmate chuckled. “Good point.”

A beat of silence, and a question in the back of Corpse’s mind.

“... Were you looking at my hands?”

“Huh?”

He toyed with the flower a little bit — not rough enough to even tear a petal. Just soft enough to bend it around his fingers. “I was gonna ask you about growing these, but I looked at you and you were watching me mess with the flower.”

A few seconds of nothing. Then the scarfed man laughed once, just a little sound of contentment to break the silence.

“It’s still kind of strange, seeing you be so gentle with something like a flower. I mean, you’re an almost-six-foot-tall astronaut with the deepest voice known to man, a space helmet with horns on it like some kind of twisted ram demon, a mask that looks like something out of my nightmares, and hands that look like you could crush my spine into powder, and here you are stroking a flower because you think it’s pretty. I guess it’s still... foreign to me.”

Corpse looked at him, internally registering the odd statement as some kind of compliment but still not quite sure how to respond to it. He understood that people he met were sometimes scared of him — really, with how he presented outwardly, how couldn’t you be? — and were often surprised when they found out how much of a “softie” he was (their words, not his).

But he and Five had been friends for months now. He should be used to his gentle nature by now, shouldn’t he?

Something wasn’t right here.

Five broke the silence after maybe ten seconds.

“Hey, watch this.”

He stood on his tiptoes for a moment and gently tugged a loose vine down. Sensing the contact, it slowly coiled around his forearm like a snake. The vines and flowers themselves seemed to breathe independently, just as the bush itself did as a collective.

Corpse watched in amazement as the vine coiled all the way down to his crewmate’s elbow. “Dude, holy shit, that’s amazing!”

“Polus flora is something else alright,” the other astronaut agreed. “Could you do me a favour and grab me a knife and a few sandwich baggies from my backpack?”

“To get the flowers, right?”

“Well, the vines too, but mostly the flowers.”

“Let’s hope these things don’t shoot spikes when they’re cut or something.” That got a chuckle out of the both of them.

As Five gently unwrapped the vine from around his arm, Corpse opened his friend’s storage pack and pulled out two pocketknives and a sealed box of resealable plastic bags. Passing one knife to Five and keeping the other for himself, he opened the box of baggies and took one out, unsealing it and tossing the box gently onto the snow.

“I’ll hold this thing open, you cut the vine and put it in the bag,” the black crewmate instructed. Five nodded, holding the now-uncoiled vine in one hand and his knife in the other.

He brought the blade within a few centimetres of the vine, but hesitated. Corpse looked at him quizzically.

“What’s the matter?”

“It’s just that... this is an extraterrestrial plant. Who knows what its defence mechanisms could be! What if it spits acid on me?!”

The taller man laughed. Maybe not the best time, but how couldn’t he?

“Do you want me to do it?”

“No, it’s fine. I’m the one with the head protection, I’ll do it. It’s like ripping off a band-aid... kinda.”

After a few more seconds of hesitation, Five winced and made a quick, clean slice.

Once it was separated from its bush, the vine started to wriggle like an upset worm. The pink astronaut proceeded to freak out a little bit, which was reasonable.

“ _Ahhhh-no-no-no-no-no_!! _Oh God, that’s weird, that’s weird_!!”

He quickly put it into the baggie that his snickering partner was holding open for him and shut it before Corpse even had the chance to.

Fortunately for the shorter man’s mental state, the vine seemed to calm down after a moment, and it stopped wriggling.

While the black crewmate was giggling like a child, Five shook his hands to try and shake off the uncomfortable experience he just endured.

“That was _so_ weird, I do _not_ like that,” the pink astronaut remarked with a shudder. “I feel like that flower just violated me.”

Corpse’s giggling turned into cackling, which at least seemed to lighten Five’s mood.

When the older man managed to calm down, he responded with, “Well, at least you know now, right? It’ll be easier now that you know to expect it.”

Five nodded, but he didn’t look completely convinced. In fact, he looked suspicious, as if he had something on his mind. But at least he seemed ready to continue with their harvesting.

The pair gathered around a dozen samples of varying sizes, Five still freaking out about the wriggling vines a couple of times, before the pink astronaut eventually broke the cycle with, “Alright, I think that’s enough.”

Corpse hummed affirmatively in response. He gently dropped the last flower sample into his partner’s backpack, along with the pocketknife that Five had been using to cut the samples off of the bush, and patted the pack proudly once it was shut. He toyed with the retracted blade that he had been holding in his hand this whole time, figuring that he’d keep it with him a little while longer. Just in case.

Another few seconds of silence, and yet another question scratching feverishly at the inside of Corpse’s skull.

In the end, he decided, hey, why not?

“So... can I ask why you brought me out here?”

“Hm?”

The older man fidgeted a bit with his hands, quickly breaking eye contact as to relieve some of his anxiety. Uh oh. Awkward situation incoming.

“I mean, clearly it wasn’t for protection, ‘cause you said that you’ve already been out here before by yourself. Was there a reason you wanted to bring me along, or...?”

There came no answer.

When he looked his crewmate in the visor again, he was surprised to see that Five was looking back at the bush, instead of at him.

“... I know that you like flowers, and there’s not really a more special flower than one from an alien planet. I saw this bush the other day and I thought, “ _Hey, Corpse would like this_ ”. So I decided to snag you for the night and bring you out here. So we could see it together. I, uh... hope I was right. That you liked it, I mean.”

Wait.

What?

“Five...”

“I know I probably should have grabbed you during the day, but I’ve never been out here in the dark before, and I know you like nighttime. Plus, y’know... no one’s gonna get worried if we’re gone for ages, ‘cause they’re all asleep.”

Judging by the tone of his voice, Corpse assumed that Five had more that he wanted to say... but he didn’t.

Realizing that if he didn’t say something, the silence would only grow more awkward, Corpse looked down at a nearby vine growing plenty of flowers. He passed his pocketknife into his left hand and gently ran his free hand’s fingers across the petals, watching them bounce back after the light pressure on them was lifted.

“You were right. I do like it here. I don’t leave home base very much... or, at all, really... so it’s nice to be somewhere new for once. And the flowers are a nice bonus, I’m glad you thought of me when you saw them.” He laughed a little.

That seemed to melt a good amount of the tension in the air. Five relaxed just a bit, letting out a breath that his crewmate hadn’t even noticed he had been holding.

“Thank God. Thought I said too much there for a second,” he chimed. The odd thing was that unlike his usual smooth, unbothered demeanour, the pink astronaut now seemed to be struggling to maintain his composure.

He was fidgeting with his scarf again, tugging on it and wrapping it around and around his hands like bandages.

Corpse was curious as to what “saying too much” was supposed to mean, but he decided to leave it be for now.

When he felt a tingling sensation on his arm, he looked back down and saw that the vine he had been gently messing with was now halfway wrapped around his forearm. He stiffened a bit on instinct, but quickly relaxed as he assured himself that the plant wouldn’t hurt him.

_«A big sample might be useful for testing, especially one with a bunch of colours like this one. I should grab this thing if it’s gonna latch onto me like that.»_

Figuring first that his hands had braved the Polus cold for long enough, he crouched down and grabbed his gloves off of the ground with his free hand, a little surprised that the wind hadn’t already blown them into the underbrush. He slipped them back on, already feeling warmer, although it was a bit of a hassle to shimmy the vine down his arm so he could put the second glove back on.

Passing his pocketknife back into his right hand and unfolding the blade, he held the base of the vine gently with his left and made a swift, clean cut, separating the part attached to the bush from the part twisted around his arm.

He expected the newly-cut vine to freak out, maybe attempt to cut off the circulation to his arm, since it seemed to hate being severed from its bush. He hadn’t even thought to unwrap the plant from around his forearm before cutting it.

But, to his confusion, the vine didn’t react to being detached from its shrub for the most part. Rather, it stayed contently coiled where it was. The end that had been severed recoiled from the cutting point, quickly sealing the injured end and wrapping itself around the provided arm like the rest of it.

Intrigued, Corpse gently tossed his pocketknife onto a smooth patch of snow that hadn’t yet been disrupted by footprints and gently tugged the plant off of his arm. It released its hold on him without a fight.

He looked over it momentarily, holding it how one would hold a snake, looking at it from different angles. He peeked inside the blossoms to look at the stamens, although he held the vine a considerable distance away from his exposed eye as he did so. Who knew, maybe the thing could shoot acid or something.

Out of curiosity, he held the two ends of the vine together, as if he were connecting a wire.

Much to the black crewmate’s surprise, the ends grew towards each other and twisted together in sort of a corkscrew look, like one of those marshmallow twist candies. The newly-connected vine formed a perfectly round flower crown, with some small leaves and blossoms of several different hues adorning it.

How smart were these plants???

... Actually, wait, he didn’t want an answer to that question.

Corpse glanced to his left, where Five was holding a branch that he had seemingly picked up off of the ground. It had no vines attached to it, but it was leafier than the evergreen trees that sheltered the bush, so the black crewmate deduced that it must have fallen off of the bush.

_«I wonder, would he let me...?»_

Hiding the ring of flora behind his back, Corpse gently tapped the scarfed astronaut on the shoulder. He flinched, but met his friend’s eyes.

“Yeah?”

“Close your eyes for a sec, I wanna see something.”

“... What?” He sounded confused, but in a cute way.

“C’mon, trust me, dude. I wanna test something.”

After a few seconds of contemplation, Five crossed his arms, branch still in hand. “How would you even know if I closed my eyes...?”

Oops.

“Well... technically, I won’t, but I’m just gonna trust that you’ll listen to me.”

A light chuckle. “Fair enough.” A beat of silence. His posture shifted from crossed arms to relaxed arms with his hands holding each other, still holding the branch, his head slightly tilted downwards. Some days Corpse had no idea how that little snowman on his head didn’t slide right off. “Alright, the eyes are closed.”

Hesitantly, the taller man took the flower crown out from behind his back and ever so gently rested it on top of his friend’s helmet. It actually complimented the snowman quite well, along with the colour of the suit itself.

“Alright, open your eyes.”

Five lifted his head, the crown thankfully staying perfectly in place. “What did you do?”

“Take off a glove and touch your forehead. Gently, though.”

Seemingly confused, the pink astronaut dropped the branch on the ground, kicked it aside, and did as he was told, removing one glove and hissing when the cold air hit his skin. After taking a few moments to adjust to the cold, he reached up to touch his forehead, and as soon as he touched a flower, his hand recoiled in surprise as a small gasp left him.

He touched it a few more times, testing, giggling again. “Oh my God, did you put a flower crown on me??”

“Yeah,” the other crewmate admitted. Even with his mask covering most of his face, he hoped that his friend could tell that he was smiling. “I cut off a piece of vine, and it kinda tied the crown itself. Thought it’d look nice on you.”

The scarfed crewmate put his glove back on and touched his face shyly — or, at least, the area where his face was supposed to be. One hand on his chin, the other holding the arm up by supporting the elbow. “You’re too sweet.”

Corpse hummed pleasantly. He reached forward again, gently touching a purple blossom...

... and the crown lit up.

The older man stepped back slightly, startled. He looked at his glove, and the tips of his index and middle fingers were dusted with a light powder, faintly glowing a shade of violet.

“Corpse? What’s going on? What’s on your hand?” The other man sounded perplexed, and Corpse looked up, all possible words escaping him when he did so.

Five looked like an angel. The flower crown — blossoms, leaves, vines, and all — seemed to be dusted with pollen, and that pollen could apparently glow. Some of the powder had already been shaken off and settled on his friend’s helmet, but there was enough on the crown that its faint glow turned into an aura, making the ring of flora look almost like a halo.

The white stamens inside the blossoms swayed idly, which now looked less unsettlingly alive and more hypnotically calming. They reminded Corpse of octopi, or maybe starfish. Tiny, friendly, definitely not venomous starfish.

To make it even better, the pollen was just barely sparkling in its own light, adding a glittery finish to the already stunning sight.

In lieu of words, Corpse stepped forward, gently cupping the side of Five’s helmet with one hand, which made his friend flinch, but he relaxed after a moment. Again, Corpse cursed the fact that the other man wore that thing absolutely everywhere, although he supposed that he was a bit of a hypocrite for that.

“You look _amazing_ right now.”

The close contact seemed to be intimidating the younger astronaut. “I mean, thank you, but... I’m confused.”

“The crown, it glows. Look.” He moved his hand off of his friend’s helmet momentarily, showing him the glowing powder on his fingertips, before placing it back.

“ _Holy shit_.”

Although it was a whisper, the surprise in that sentence was genuine, that much Corpse could tell. He laughed, putting his other hand on the other side of his friend’s helmet.

They were nearly chest-to-chest. They had never gotten this close before — sure, they had hugged each other, as most friends did, but they had never just stood this close before. If they weren’t covering their faces, they would have been breathing the same air.

Corpse was vaguely aware that his heart was pounding — possibly from anxiety, but possibly from something else, too — but he was too wrapped up in the moment to pay any mind to it. He seemed to be forgetting his troubles a lot tonight.

After a while of standing nearly frozen still, Five seemed to relax, and rested his hands on top of Corpse’s. “You said that this thing tied itself?”

“Yep. I held the ends together ‘cause I wanted to see if they would grow together or something, but the thing just turned itself into a crown. How smart are these plants?”

“Well, smarter than me, I guess.”

The taller man laughed at that. “Five, c’mon, you’re a genius. Don’t pit yourself against a bunch of flowers.”

“Corpse, these flowers could figure out how to get me this close to you when I couldn’t.”

Within a second of processing that sentence, Corpse tensed up, and within a second of finishing it, Five did too.

“What does that mean...?”

“Nothing. It means nothing. I’m just thinking out loud. Forget it.” The pink astronaut rushed through the sentence, a detail that didn’t go unnoticed by Corpse. Five didn’t let go of his hands, but he seemed about ready to.

“Five, that’s not something that people just say without reason...” He hoped that he didn’t sound uncomfortable. He was truly just confused. He supposed that the directness of the statement had just startled him a bit. “If you have something to say, you can say it. It’s okay.”

The reassurance didn’t fall on deaf ears, but it didn’t seem to calm Five very much, either. He took a breath in, and then let it out, letting his shoulders relax.

“Alright. Fine. Just... give me a second to put the words together.”

“Take all the time you need.”

Hesitantly, Corpse removed his hands from his friend’s helmet and stepped back just a little bit, just to give him a bit of breathing room.

He wasn’t sure how long they were standing in silence while his friend searched for the right words to explain what he had said. He watched Five attentively, looking back and forth from his helmet to his hands. He was messing with his scarf again, tugging it like a piece of rope. The black crewmate hoped that he didn’t damage it, as he was rather fond of it, and it would be a shame to see him upset.

After a while, the pink crewmate gripped his scarf tightly, looking back up at his friend.

“Alright. I think I know what to say.”

“Hit me.”

A deep breath, in and out. The vice grip on his scarf could crush someone’s airway.

“I know that we don’t spend as much time together as we do with others. You have your circle, I have mine, it’s cool. But whenever I get a minute to just talk to you, without a whole bunch of other people around... it’s nice, you know? I feel like we’re kinda on the same wavelength. You... Jesus. As stupid as it sounds, I feel like you _get_ me, Corpse.”

The younger astronaut’s iron grip on his scarf had loosened around the middle of his sentence, and he was now twirling it around his hands like bandages again. His gaze strayed away a few times, but it always came back to focus on the man in front of him.

He wasn’t wrong when he implied that Corpse understood him. Although others in the crew generally understood him fairly well, it was undeniable that the only two crewmates who hid their faces from the rest had a special connection — a few of their friends even swore up and down that the two could read each other’s minds. Five could read Corpse’s facial expressions almost as well as Sykkuno could, and at this point Corpse could write a book about all of the ways he could tell what the pink astronaut was feeling.

“I feel like that too,” Corpse said without thinking. Quickly, he added, “You’re easy to relate to, and I generally feel pretty comfortable around you. And you’re kinda, uh... on my mind a lot.”

The black crewmate felt like kicking himself the second those words were out of his mouth. _«Why did I say that???»_

“You’re on my mind a lot, too.”

_«Oh. Nevermind, I guess.»_

The taller astronaut chuckled and gave him a nervous look. “All good thoughts, I hope?”

“All good, yeah, but some of them... kind of confusing.”

_«Oh boy. Here we go.»_ ““Confusing”...?”

Five brought his hand to his face, hand clenched into a fist, pressing his knuckles into the helmet. The other crewmate could hear the sound of the impact echoing from inside the helmet.

“Jesus, I keep trying to dance around it. I’m just gonna say it. I... I think I’ve got feelings for you.”

Dead silence.

Five crossed his arms and looked at the ground, and for once Corpse had no idea what he was feeling. The black crewmate himself, meanwhile, wasn’t sure what he was feeling, either.

How does someone even respond to a confession like that?

Corpse had known for a while that Five was into guys. That was natural, of course, and he had never thought much about it. But hearing that his friend was into _him_... it felt strange. And not necessarily a bad kind of strange, either.

The taller astronaut had never told a soul, but he wasn’t exactly certain of his sexuality. When asked, he always said that he was straight, because it was the only label that he felt fit him, but if someone were to ask if he was attracted to men, he wouldn’t be able to give them a clear answer.

Hearing the words “ _I think I’ve got feelings for you_ ” from Five lit him up inside in a way that he had never felt from another man before. But the real question was, did he actually feel the same, or was he just honoured that someone liked him that much?

Finally, he broke the silence.

“Are... you sure...?”

A moment of hesitation from the younger astronaut.

“... Yeah. Yeah, I am.”

Corpse sighed, head full of thoughts and none of them calm.

He was still unsure about who he was, but he was down to experiment. Who knew, after all — maybe if he gave this thing a shot, it would work out. But the thought of what would happen if he couldn’t love his friend in the way he wanted...

... Nevermind that. He had to try.

“Five...”

His tone was gentle, but still the pink crewmate recoiled like a scared kitten. He didn’t even look up... did he already regret saying what he did?

“Mhm?”

He sounded defeated. Like he had accepted rejection without even being handed it yet.

_«Well, we can’t have that, now can we?»_

Corpse reached forward gently, unfolding his friend’s arms from each other and holding one of his hands reassuringly. Five’s head turned slightly, his gaze shifting from the ground to their interlocked hands.

“Let’s give this thing a shot.”

Within a second, the scarfed astronaut was looking back up at him.

“Wait, are you serious??”

Was that excitement, disbelief, or some weird hybrid of both in his voice? The black crewmate couldn’t tell. His head was spinning. Was this really happening?

“Yeah, I’m serious. I’ve been, uh... questioning myself for a while now, so you never know. Maybe it’ll work out between us. Even if it doesn’t, and we’re not... “romantically compatible”, or something... I’ll still be here for you as a friend, and I won’t let this whole crush thing change anything between us. I hope that’ll be enough.”

For a moment, Five looked back down. Specifically, at his gloved hand that was being gently held in his friend’s larger one.

He wasn’t quiet for long before he tugged Corpse forward to hug him, wrapping his arms tightly around his torso.

“Thank you, Corpse. I mean it. Just don’t... Don’t feel obligated to stay if you don’t think it’s going to work, okay?”

The taller crewmate hugged him back firmly, careful not to nudge the flower crown. He chuckled just a little bit. “Don’t you worry. I think it’s gonna work.”

Five moved to let go, but Corpse held him in place for just a moment. This seemed to concern him, but not frighten him.

“Corpse?”

“Hold still for a sec...”

Confused but obeying anyway, the shorter man stayed where he was, moving his hands from his friend’s back to instead rest on his shoulders. The black crewmate moved his hands too, from the shorter man’s back to the sides of his helmet again.

Being careful of the crown, he leaned down ever so slightly and...

_Bonk!_

Obviously, with his mask and Five’s helmet in the way, Corpse couldn’t actually kiss him. But a gentle mouth-to-forehead bonk was good enough for now.

The gesture seemed to confuse the scarfed crewmate for a moment, but as soon as it clicked, he started giggling, seemingly embarrassed.

“Corpse!”

“Hey, I thought you liked me!” Now Corpse was giggling too.

“I do! I just didn’t expect it, is all.”

He turned away slightly, hands staying in their place on his friend’s shoulders. Corpse followed his gaze, and found himself staring across the vast field they had ran through like a couple of kids just a little while earlier. The snowmobile appeared to still be parked where they had left it, its bright red accents standing out against the darkness.

Corpse’s mind started to wander.

If they were really going to give this whole “romance” thing a shot, how long would it be before their crewmates found out? He wasn’t worried about them not being supportive — they were good people, of course they’d be supportive. He was more worried about the possibility of a romance between them working out, but then ending in bad blood before the space mission was over. It was common knowledge that dating a coworker was a bad idea, why would this be any different?

Fortunately for him, Five spoke up again, crashing his train of negative thoughts.

“... Can you hold the flower crown for a sec? I’m gonna put it back on in a second, I just wanna do something.”

Now it was Corpse’s turn to be confused.

“Okay...?”

The two let each other go, and the black crewmate gently removed the ring of flora from his friend’s head. It was still glowing just as brightly as it had been earlier, even as some of the pollen fell off of the crown and dusted Corpse’s gloves.

When the older astronaut looked back up at his friend, he was utterly blindsided.

Five was taking off his helmet.

And before he could even say anything, Corpse was finally seeing his face.

The first thing he noticed was Five’s hair — a lovely shade of pink, just a little lighter than his suit. It looked soft, like he took good care of it. The pink astronaut had tied it in a rattail with what looked to be a green hairband. That was far from the style he expected his friend to go for, but he wasn’t surprised to see how well it worked for him.

His eyes were almost the same colour as Corpse’s. While Corpse’s eyes were a bold red, the kind you’d see in a vampire, Five’s were softer, a sort of strawberry colour. Anyone looking at him could tell that he was bright, both in the intelligent and creative sense.

A light blush dusted the younger astronaut’s face, and his smile when he met his friend’s eyes was even cuter than the black crewmate expected it to be.

This time, Five wasted no time with long silences.

“So... what do you think?”

Instead of speaking, the taller crewmate stepped forward and gently placed the flower crown he had been holding all this time back on his friend’s head.

“You’re adorable.”

Five’s face reddened just a little bit, holding his helmet under one arm and adjusting the crown with the other so it was more comfortable. “Of course. Can’t go without the finishing touch.”

A moment of quiet, minus a small content chuckle from Corpse.

Then, an idea.

“Hey, Five.”

He had his attention now. “Hm?”

“Do you trust me?”

“Well, obviously. Why?”

“Alright, sweet. Let me just...”

The shorter astronaut flinched when his crewmate took a gentle hold on his scarf, a reaction that didn’t go unnoticed. Corpse looked back up at him for confirmation.

After a moment, the pink crewmate nodded, haphazardly tossing his helmet onto the snow in favour of gently holding his hands together in front of him. “Sorry. You didn’t do anything wrong, I just wasn’t expecting that.”

The other man hummed in understanding and gently looped the scarf over his head.

Had he ever seen Five without this thing on before? He wore it everywhere. Even on laundry day, somehow he managed to put it through a whole wash cycle without ever being seen without it. Looking back up at his friend, it was definitely a new look. No helmet, no scarf. He seemed aware of this, and a little awkward about it.

After a second of thought...

“Close your eyes, will you?”

The younger man complied without hesitation, and Corpse carefully tied the scarf around his eyes, acting as a blindfold.

“Woah, hey, what’s going on?” He didn’t seem afraid, just confused. That was good.

“I’m not doing what you think I’m doing, I can tell you that. I just need to take my mask off for a second.”

“You could’ve asked me to look away, or to just close my eyes...”

“This way’s safer. I trust you and all, it’s just for some peace of mind, y’know?”

“... Yeah, that’s fair enough.”

After double-checking that the scarf was tied tight enough, the black crewmate stepped back and gave his work a once-over. His friend looked rather cute, clueless and blindfolded, with the flower crown still glowing to top it all off. He found it a little amusing that he had to remind himself that this wasn’t _that_ kind of scenario.

After taking a moment to admire his handiwork, Corpse hesitantly removed his rabbit mask and gently tossed it onto the snow.

He was used to not wearing it at this point. He took it off almost daily, mostly for breakfast but sometimes for comfort, and wasn’t exactly averse to other people seeing him without it. Some days he didn’t even wear it at all.

The problem would be removing the black facemask he wore under it, the one that hid the entire lower half of his face. He was _not_ used to taking that one off, especially not in the presence of others, and especially not outside.

_«Just gotta rip the bandaid off. It’ll be fine. No one can see anyway, not even him. I blindfolded him for a reason.»_

Hand shaking, he tugged the facemask under his chin, uncovering the lower half of his face.

The paranoia of being seen was already setting in. He tried his best to not let it deter him. There would be one awkward conversation to be had if he backed out halfway through.

“Corpse? You okay?” Five sounded worried. It made sense, seeing as Corpse was taking a while.

“Yeah. Yeah, everything’s fine.”

“You’re less muffled than before... did you take the—”

“Yeah, I did.”

Corpse finally stepped forward again, gloved hands finding their way to the sides of Five’s face. His friend rested his own hands on the taller astronaut’s forearms.

Corpse lowered his voice, just slightly. “I took it off for a reason, you know.”

Finally, the pink crewmate seemed to catch on, judging by the faintest inkling of a smile on his face and his blush growing just a little more noticeable. Even so, he asked in a hushed tone, “And what reason would that be...?”

In lieu of a verbal answer, Corpse pressed his lips against Five’s — gentle enough for the shorter man to pull away at any time, but firm enough to distract himself from the ever-increasing stress of having his face uncovered.

Thankfully, and precisely as he expected, Five reciprocated without hesitation.

Kissing him felt... nice. Corpse had never kissed another man before, but it felt around the same as kissing a girl. His lips were soft, and he seemed fairly experienced, his hands moving from Corpse’s forearms to his chest to grip his suit. The black crewmate pulled him slightly closer, now chest-to-chest with his friend. He was definitely going to have to wash glowing pollen from the flower crown out of his hair.

Corpse didn’t bring it far, as he wasn’t ready for that yet, and especially not in the freezing cold. How long had they been out here again?

After a little while, the astronauts gently separated so they could breathe. They stayed close, close enough to breathe the same air, not wanting to stray too far from the other. Corpse’s hands moved from Five’s face to his shoulders, the realization that he could feel the younger man’s heartbeat sending a jolt of... _something_ through him.

Even blindfolded, the black crewmate could tell that Five was blushing up a storm. Even out of breath, he had a smile on his face, his lips just a little bit shiny. Corpse almost wanted to kiss him again, but he pushed that urge away in favour of catching his breath.

_«Yep. Definitely into guys.»_

Five was the first to speak, breaking the silence with light, exasperated laughter. “ _Wow_.”

That made Corpse laugh a little bit too. “Yeah, I agree... wow.”

“Can I... take the blindfold off now?”

“Yeah, just gimme a sec. I’ll tell you when you can take it off.”

Reluctantly letting go of his friend, Corpse pulled his facemask back up where it belonged and retrieved his rabbit mask from the ground. A bit of snow stuck to the outer side of it, but he brushed it off. Having the mask back on gave him a wave of relief, and he was already feeling a lot more comfortable.

“Alright, you’re good to go.”

Corpse had barely finished the sentence before Five was looping the scarf-blindfold off of his eyes, untying the knot, and wrapping it back around his neck.

“God, not wearing this thing feels... weird.”

“Do you literally ever take that thing off?”

“I take it off to wash it, and sometimes to sleep, but other than that, barely.”

“Where the hell do you even go when you wash it?? I swear to God, last week I did my laundry before you, never left the room, and when I came out I passed you and it smelled like detergent. Teach me your ways!!”

That made them both laugh. Man, he was on fire today!

Five took a moment to himself and smoothed his hair, seemingly still giddy from the kiss, as he still had that adorable smile on his face.

The events of the night replayed in Corpse’s head. He had rode out to this field intending to gather flowers, and would be leaving it with far more than he had expected. Flowers, a self-discovery, a possible relationship, and, last but most certainly not least, the knowledge of how cute his crewmate really was under that helmet.

One thing stuck out as he recalled the events of the exploration. Something Five had said earlier, before he confessed. Something that conveniently lined up with a particular statement in said confession.

“So... did you bring me along to try to spend some time alone with me?”

The pink crewmate’s blush deepened just a little, as his gaze shifted back to the flower bush. His facial expression answered the question before his words could.

“Maybe...”

“You sly dog!” A feather-light punch to the shoulder made Five stumble just a bit, laughing awkwardly.

“Am I really that easy to read?”

“For me, at least.”

“Damn it.”

Corpse hummed contentedly, before casting a glance to his left, across the field. From what he could make out, the snowmobile still sat in waiting for its riders to return.

“If we’ve attended to all of our business here, we should probably head back. We’ve been here for...” _«Wait, fuck. I don’t have a watch.»_ “... a while.”

Five followed his gaze, seemingly surprised that the snowmobile was still there. Had he forgotten about it?

“Oh. Yeah, I think we’ve got everything we need from here. Well, at least, I got everything I came for,” he added, a smug chuckle escaping him.

The older man rolled his eyes, but under his mask, he was smiling.

“Don’t forget your helmet, smartass.”

“Say less.”

Within thirty seconds, the pink crewmate’s helmet was back in place. The knowledge that he still had the flower crown on under the helmet made him smile. He wondered how long he would keep it for.

... And that damn snowman still hadn’t budged from its spot. He had to have hot-glued that thing on or something, this was just ridiculous at this point.

While Five was making sure that his helmet was on right, Corpse retrieved his pocketknife from the ground, and quickly stuffed it into his friend’s storage pack. He had the rest of the stuff, after all, so it made sense to make him carry it.

After the pack was zipped up all nice and proper, Five gently nudged his crush with his shoulder, a playful tone in his voice.

“So, whaddaya say, Corpse? Race ya to the snowmobile?”

Before the older man could even reply, the scarfed astronaut was already taking off like a shot towards the red-and-black blip in the distance.

“Hey! You cheater!” Corpse tried to sound irritated, he really did, but he just couldn’t with how happy he was. But, of course, cloud nine or not, he wasn’t about to let Five get the best of him like that!

After a momentary final glance back at the flower bush, the black crewmate took off chasing after his friend, already excited for the days to come.

**Author's Note:**

> an extra special thanks to my best friend wendy for helping me out all the way through writing this <3333


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